Sunday, January 22, 2006

Shorter U.S. government
on how Osama bin Laden got his start in armed action with the forces
it was backing against the erstwhile Communist Afghan government:

Hey, we never gave him any money. Not directly. Every cent that we
gave anyone on the ground there was funneled through the Pakistani
government. And we also brokered a deal with the Saudi government to
get them to match every dollar we weren't giving the anti-government
forces, so that makes us even less responsible for anything that was
done with the cash. We were diverting that money through cutouts to
get plausible deniability --- so when we deny any moral responsibility
for the consequences now, you're supposed to find that plausible.
That's how the world works, and you shouldn't let anyone tell you
different.

Incidentally, lest one get too partisan about these
affairs, it's worth noting that the Saudi deal was brokered by the
Carter administration, whose reputation for pious scruples was more
than a little exaggerated...